Katrina mentioned that she’d read that the impact of child rape is less severe on cultures where this practice is typical. It turns out is was a comment on this LessWrong post and the validity of this statement is not certain.

Thanks! That was.. well, definitely educational. I didn’t expect that kind of violence between members of the same species. In most fights over a mate or territory it’s usually in a way that there’s no lasting harm done until one appears to be superior.

Steven had one important thought that he failed to articulate during this episode. One doesn’t need to subscribe to a single ethical framework and stick to it all the time. Some situations don’t allow for utilitarian thinking and a coldblooded calculation on saving an expensive painting or your infant during a house fire is one of those cases. It’s ok to say that you didn’t conduct yourself as a utilitarian in that circumstance – it doesn’t say anything bad about you, given that you’re a human and it would destroy your life to let your child burn.

The “not lying about the Jews in the basement” scenario is a very typical counter-point to deontology, and you presented it the way everyone else does, but it misrepresents the pros and cons of deontology, because when the Gestapo knocks on your door, as a deontologist, you are not only bound by the “not lying” rule, but also by the “not let a genocide happen” rule.

And I believe there is a critical mass (and pretty low at that) of true deontologist in a population that would make any tyrannical goverment impractical or unsustainable. I guess there’s a similarity with precommitment against blackmail.